You Are Here

It's a new month and a new CSI challenge is up! I just loved this one; with the bright colors and vacation memories. We recently took a trip to Disneyland. We left the grey, cool skies of Oregon and emerged into the bright sun of LA. I love this photo of my husband, with his cool sunglasses.

I used this awesome map and sun from Look Up And Get Lost, found at Unity Stamp Co. I love how you can use that map to show your travels around the country and that sun....oh, I love that sun.

I used The Road Trip cut file from The Cut Shoppe and a Here flair from A Flair For Buttons

For my evidence I used: map, travel elements, transportation elements, trees, stamping, and a white background

My testimony is on our recent trip.

 

 Come play along with us this month! 

Hello, Sydney

I'm a little behind, but there is still time to join in with the major case at CSI this month. It's December so of course there are Christmas cases and of course I'm going to do a kitty layout for the Christmas theme.

Last year we had my daughter, her husband, and their cat living with us whilst they built their house. It was super fun, we laughed a lot, and I loved having a kitty in the house again! When they moved out, my husband told our daughter, "When we get back from Sydney, I'm getting Mom at cat". True to his word, when we returned from our trip (months after he told her, she was dying with anticipation) they went out and chose a cat for me. They couldn't have picked a better kitty, she is so sweet, hilarious, and loving. To go along with the story, her name settled into Sydney.

The Cut Shoppe has some fantastic kitty cut files; I used a few here. A Flair For Buttons has adorable kitty flair, as well as an Australia set, which is where the Sydney flair came from. One fabulous perk about them is you can mix and match sets by buying custom kits.

Evidence used: stripes, twine, stars

Testimony is something I've wished for for some time.

Follow Your Feet

A super fun case this week at CSI. The perfect colors to highlight one of the many hikes we took this summer. We really do live in a beautiful state. My husband had gone mountain bike riding on this trail and wanted to take me back for a hike. You hike along a pretty meadow, take a turn and end up on this spit of land overlooking the valley and surrounding mountains. You just sort of pop out of the trees to this spectacular view! I very much enjoyed it.

The Cut Shoppe had a fun new file with some hiking phrases that I, of course, had to get. I paired it with this cute compass cut, which went perfectly with the compass rose button from A Flair For Buttons. I did one of my favorite things, getting inky and messy, having fun with stencils and splatters.

Evidence used: wood grain, wood, trees, metal, something fuzzy

Testimony is from the prompt, what did you do today?

I Spy

You all know that I love going to the coast and my favorite thing to do there is to find fun critters in the tide pools. This week's case was perfect for that.

I love the giant anchor, by The Cut Shoppe and love the double meaning of the flair from A Flair For Buttons.

Evidence used: nautical elements, wood, animals, mesh, twine

Testimony is about spending time at the beach.
I spy with my little eye
Critters of the sea
Hiding away until low tide

Heceta Head

I love going to the coast, it's my happy place. One of my favorite places to go is Heceta Head, with this pretty lighthouse and fantastic tide pools. It's in a protective little cove and just feels like home to me. The Land Ho file was just perfect for this shot of my husband and me next to the lighthouse. I even gave the scribble waves a try and they cut out perfectly! Tall Type always makes a statement and I love the beach house effect I was able to get using the wood, backed with distressed sea foam blue. The Kitschy Cursive was the perfect companion alpha. I few clouds from from Happy Clouds finished off the piece.

I hadn't meant to use so many files on my page, but with so many awesome files to be found in the shop, how can you stop at just one when there are a number of designs to help tell your story? Stop by today and find some inspiration!

You & Me

Today I am using the super fun giant ampersand, from And Love, and I just love the statement it makes. You AND me. I am better with you. We are a force of one. And. Since I'm all about the statement, I cut it out rather large to become the centerpiece of my layout. I love how the hearts from Spring Fling go so seamlessly with the hearts in the ampersand. I used 2 of the 3 rows for a little banner to bring balance to page. Finally, the Open Letter Alpha was the perfect alpha to cut the rest of my title from because I could tailor the background paper to reflect the individuals represented.

Stop over in the shop and pick up And Love today and make your statement!

Hello Hello Cabana

Hello and happy Tuesday! Today I am using the new Snapshot collection.

Isn't this a super fun collection? I love the fun colors and patterns. I liked the look of the triangle paper, with it's black borders and bright colors. The colors really pop so I chose Hip2BSquared and cut it out in black, mimicking this look. I backed the cut with various paper from the collection. I used some leftover strips to add fun pops of color to the top and bottom. The Hello Hello card became the perfect title piece.

Stop by the shop and pick up Snapshots, you can use it over and over again. The possibilities are endless!

NSD - Mad About You

Happy National Scrapbooking Day! Ashley at The Cut Shoppe is offering an awesome free cut file in honor of our day. Be sure to stop by the blog to add to your library today. Also, be sure to use your sale code to get 50% off in the store!

I just love the fun circles cut and decided to show you one of my favorite ways to color a cut design. I simply pressed my cut into inks that had been spritzed, but you can also drag your cut out through the ink, letting the colors mix. It has so many possible looks and is fun to do!

First I cut the design out of plain white cardstock. I chose a few distress ink. Here I chose masculine, earthy colors. Lay everything out on a silicone mat, we are going to need something to squish the inks on to.





Choose your first color and stamp the pad right onto the silicone mat. Spritz with some water and press a section of the cut out design directly into the ink. I simply pressed down, being careful not to move it much because I like the variety in coverage





Repeat with the next color and press the section of the design that is just under the first






Finish with stamping and spritzing with the last colors, pressing in a new blank section of the design.






I used the same technique on one of my favorite layouts, but with bright and fun colors.

To Live

I needed a title page for my Costa Rica album and this giant sentiment from Quick Quotes is just perfect. I cut it out of black card stock and pop dotted it up to give prominence to the quote. The photo is one I took from the airplane window and I just love all the arrows on the paper that point to it. Who needs a ton of embellishment when you have such a statement piece as this one? I simply added a few wood bits, some spatters and string for texture, a compass, a plane, and a fun pop of color in the flair. It was truly scrapping done easy.

Be sure to stop by the shop to add some pizzaz to your next story.

Zumba!

Happy Tuesday. Today I am using a super fun background cut in What Goes Around. I used the 8.5x11 version, cut from white card stock. I dragged sections of the cut through puddles of distress ink puddled on my splat mat, giving it this fun rainbow effect, which was perfect for this photo of a Zumba-thon I recently attended. I cut the title from the fun alpha, Write On Alpha. I love the fun feel of this alpha and the filled in centers. I thought it just added that bit of carefree fun to the page.

Stop by the shop and find something to add fun to your next project! See you next time.

Epic

Happy Tuesday to you! I have some photos of my husband's zipline adventure from our Costa Rica trip. While we were hiking canopy trails, he took to the air on a zipline tour. There were around 20 different stops along the way, with some significant distances. The last leg was 3/4 of a mile long and you have to double up so you have the weight to get all the way to the finish platform and not stuck in the middle. They had a photographer along and he got the CD.

The Boys Rule file was just perfect for these photos. I also added some things from Graffiti Greetings and Let's Make Music.

Stop by the shop and find something to help you tell your story today!

In The Clouds

I'm back with another Costa Rica layout! One of the really cool things we did was hike a couple of canopy trails. These trails are like normal hiking trails, until you get to a gully, then you walk on a long suspension bridge that goes right out over the tops of the trees. It's a really unique look, but more on that in a future layout. These forests are high up in the mountains. Cost Rica is pretty narrow, only 76 miles at the most narrow point, and is divided by a mountain range that tops out at 12,500 feet. Monteverde, where we went hiking is about 5000 feet. It is a cloud magnet, trapping the cloud cover that blows in from either the Carri bean or the Pacific, depending on which way the wind is blowing, enveloping the forest in a blanket of warm moisture.

For my layout I started by cutting a matte from A Walk In The Clouds. I left this white and placed on blue scripty paper. Next I cut the clouds from Happy Clouds in both vellum and white card stock. I used distress ink to color the card stock clouds in dreamy blues. For my title I used the last 3 words in Child @ Heart.

 

 

Be sure to come by the shop and find a cut file to help tell your story! See you next time

Everyday Should Be Caterday

I've been fighting the flu this week. I've felt awful and not like doing much, but I've had this snuggle buddy to keep me company and warm. I saw the adorable kitty printables in the shop and knew the Caturday one would be purrrfect to use for this photo I took for my daughter to show how good her kitty was treating me. I found this seriously cute heart paper that complimented my printed card quite nicely, that I stitched down, then grabbed love heart from Notebook Doodles for my main embellishment and the heart from Hello Kitty to add with my wood veneer hearts. A pile of string and sprinkling of sequins finished off the piece.

 

Try some of the cute printables from the shop today. See you next time!

Feel The Love

Hi and welcome to The Cut Shoppe's Feel The Love blog hop! You should have arrived here via Michelle's blog. If you just wandered here or get lost at any time, just head over to The Cut Shoppe's blog for a complete list.

I chose to do make a card that I will give to the hubby on Valentine's Day. I used the Feel The Love file, Love Letters, and Plus Infinity file. I use Plus Infinity to cut out a stencil, in 6x6 size, then applied gel medium onto my card base. I used 2 bright colors of distress ink to water color, letting the gelled symbols act as a resist. I also outlined the symbols to give definition and to tie in with the black letters, which are cut from the Love Letters file. Next I cut out the heart, from the Feel The Love file, from white card stock and colored with Festive Berries and Persimmon distress inks, spritzing to give some texture, and outlined the heart with black pen.

Be sure to leave me a comment on this blog. One lucky commenter will receive the Plus Infinity file! Next up is Madeline. Be sure to check out what she made.